Method and apparatus for processing data using optical character reader

1. A method for processing data by using an optical character reader (OCR), the method comprising: obtaining OCR data from each image file of a plurality of image files and storing the obtained OCR data; receiving a search command with respect to an object; extracting the object from the stored OCR data; selecting OCR data which includes the object from among the OCR data; and displaying, based on a matching table, a list of image files which correspond to the selected OCR data, wherein the matching table includes file information which relates to a particular image file and an address of OCR data which corresponds to the particular image file to match the particular image file with the OCR data corresponding to the image file.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining and storing comprises: obtaining OCR data which corresponds to an image file from among the plurality of image files; comparing a size of the obtained OCR data with a size of a file area of the image file; storing the obtained OCR data in the file area when the size of the obtained OCR data is less than or equal to the size of the file area; and matching the obtained OCR data with the image file and storing a result of the matching in a data area when the size of the OCR data is greater than the size of the file area.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the storing the result of the matching in the data area comprises: matching file information which relates to the image file with information which relates to an address at which the obtained OCR data is stored, and storing a result thereof such that the file information which relates to the image file is matched with the address of the OCR data which corresponds to the image file.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the extracting comprises: determining whether OCR data which respectively corresponds to each image file of the plurality of image files has been obtained; when, for a particular image file, a determination is made that no OCR data has been obtained, performing an optical character reading process with respect to the particular image file in order to obtain OCR data which relates to the particular image file; and parsing the obtained OCR data which relates to the particular image file and extracting the object from the parsed data.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the extracting further comprises: determining whether each image file from among the plurality image files corresponds to at least one item of OCR data from among the obtained OCR data; if a determination is made that at least one image file does not correspond to at least one item of OCR data from among the obtained OCR data, selecting a subject image file from among the at least one image file; performing an optical character reading process with respect to the selected subject image file; and parsing OCR data that is previously stored and OCR data that is generated as a result of the performing the optical character reading process, and extracting the object from the parsed data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: when a request for performing an optical character reading process with respect to the plurality of image files is received, distinguishing, from among the plurality of image files, a first subset of image files which include OCR data from a second subset of image files which do not include OCR data; selecting an image file from among the second subset of image files; and performing the optical character reading process with respect to the selected image file.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the extracting comprises: for a particular image file from among the plurality of image files, checking the respective file area to determine whether OCR data which corresponds to the particular image file has been stored; and if, for the particular image file, a determination is made that no OCR data which corresponds thereto has been stored, checking the data area to determine whether a result of the matching with respect to the particular image file has been stored in the data area.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the extracting further comprises: if a determination is made that OCR data has been stored in at least one of the respective file area and the data area, attempting to extract the object from the stored OCR data; and if a result of the attempting is not successful, performing an object search with respect to a next image file from among the plurality of image files.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: determining whether an object search process has been performed for all image files from among the plurality of image files if the object has been extracted from the obtained OCR data; when a determination is made that the object search process has been performed for all image files, displaying the list of image files which correspond to the selected OCR data; accumulating and storing information which relates to OCR data from which the object has been extracted; and when a determination is made that that the object search has not been performed for all image files, performing an object search with respect to a next image file from among the plurality of image files.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein the using the OCR to obtain OCR data further comprises performing a corresponding optical character reading process in conjunction with photographing each image file from among the plurality of image files.

11. A user device comprising: a display which is configured to display image files, a list of the image files, and a screen interface for facilitating a reception of a user request to search for an object with respect to optical character reader (OCR) data which relate to the image files; a storage which is configured to store the image files and to store the OCR data which relate to the image files; and a controller which is configured to obtain respective OCR data from each respective image file of the image files, to control the storage to store the obtained respective OCR data, to distinguish OCR data which includes the object from among the stored OCR data when the user request to search for the object is received, and to control the display to display, based on a matching table, a list of image files which correspond to the distinguished OCR data, wherein the matching table includes file information which relates to a particular image file and an address of OCR data which corresponds to the particular image file to match the particular image file with the OCR data corresponding to the image file.

12. The user device of claim 11 , wherein when, for a particular image file, a size of the respective OCR data is less than or equal to a size of a file area of the particular image file, the controller is further configured to control the storage to store the respective OCR data in the file area of the particular image file, and when, for the particular image file, the size of the respective OCR data is greater than the size of the file area of the particular image file, the controller is further configured to match the respective OCR data with the particular image file and to store the respective OCR data in a data area of the storage.

13. The user device of claim 12 , wherein the controller is further configured to distinguish image files which include respective OCR data from image files which do not include respective OCR data, to select an image file from among the image files which do not include respective OCR data as a subject image file, and to perform an optical character reading process with respect to the selected subject image file.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having a recorded program that obtains from OCR data from each image file of a plurality of image files and stores the obtained OCR data, distinguishes OCR data which includes an object from among the obtained OCR data when a search command with respect to the object is received, processes, based on a matching table, a display of a list of image files which correspond to the distinguished OCR data, matches respective OCR data with a corresponding image file, and stores a result of the match in at least one of a file area of the corresponding image file and a data area of a storage, wherein the matching table includes file information which relates to a particular image file and an address of OCR data which corresponds to the particular image file to match the particular image file with the OCR data corresponding to the image file.